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I have never understood how anyone thinks this way and doesn't see that they are making a fundamentally racist argument.
This whole idea that black people have to change racial stereotypes about black people through modifying our behavior rests on a few few phony ideas.
One phony idea places white people as the ones who watch and sit in judgement of black Americans and our basic humanity.
If one sees black Americans as full human beings then the idea that we have to prove something to anybody, especially white people about our humanity in order for them to stop stereotyping us is a grotesque, ignorant, and racist idea.
Few people question the "basic humanity" of others. However everyone evaluates everyone else's behavior and notices patterns. Stereotypes are the natural result of this and we all use them to make sense of the world.
When push comes to shove, we are all likely to form up groups that look and sound like ourselves.
Out of curiosity, does black America feel any kind of affinity to the US? to Western culture? or is everybody outside of the group viewed as similarly alien?
In a world of limited resources, this is the kind of question that actually will matter quite a lot.
I obviously can't speak for all of Black America, but I will answer. Yes, I feel a great affinity to the United States of America. I was born here (in New York City, to be exact) 55.5 years ago.
Granted, I wasn't alive for the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow. But I still feel, based on my limited experience, that the USA, as flawed as it is, is still the best nation on earth to live.
I am of obvious African descent. My ancestors were slaves. Citizenship for Africans at one time was unthinkable, but here I exist, proof that a society can change for the better. I carry a U.S. passport. I AM an American Citizen by birth.
I haven't had the opportunity to go overseas, but I hear that if I do, I will be likely not be viewed as black, but as an American, and I'm fine with that.
I can do little about how others who look like me choose to behave, nor can I do much about how others choose to view me. All I can do is take care of my own family and ensure my black children become productive members of this American society.
Few people question the "basic humanity" of others. However everyone evaluates everyone else's behavior and notices patterns. Stereotypes are the natural result of this and we all use them to make sense of the world.
Nonsense, people see what they want to and interpret things the way they want to interpret.
Our own history is proof of that. Early on, jazz music was seen as an inferior and ignorant form of music which encouraged drinking, womanizing, etc. and proved the inferiority of the black race.
The people making that critique thought they saw a pattern and we're evaluating behavior of a whole group of people on the basis of skin color.
Heck, Thomas Jefferson a brilliant man also thought he saw a pattern and was evaluating behavior of a whole group of people based on their skin color.
Thomas Jefferson believed based on his evaluating behavior as he wrote in his book Notes on the state of Virginia, that black people didn't love like white people, that adult black people had the intellectual capabilities of white children, that black men lusted after white women the same way gorillas lusted after black women.
See there were Thomas Jefferson's observations and he believed and they were based on his noticing patterns based on skin color.
In fact, American history and the present is full of prominent well respected, beloved Americans believing with absolute conviction some racist ideas about black people.
The problem with your basic premise is there exists no proof, that Americans are able to do what you say which is accurately notice patterns and evaluate behavior of millions of other people based on that group of peoples' skin color.
Usually, that kind of thinking is what is call motivated thinking.
Or as I see it, thinking that seeks to understand reality based on a pre determined narrative.
The pre determined narrative in America is that the black race is inferior, not as human as white people.
Now people take various routes to get to that pre determined narrative, but it always ends up, hey black people are messed up, troubled, have all of these collective black racial deficiencies.
ok you made this up huh, i like watermelon and chicken too. that doesnt mean one race as a hold on it. watermelons is prety good, especially an ice cold one on a hot day. I like those little one, so i can have the whole sucker to myself. if your carefully with the seeds you can have free watermelon couple weeks later.
black people to accept that they are inferior. but they are not. quit making stuff up, you making yourself look like a fool
Nah, I didn't make anything up. You can remain ignorant or use google.
White racists absolutely created a massively popular and enduring stereotype about how black people loved chicken and watermelon. Some how this stereotype proved that we were lazy, stupid, shiftless, etc.
You obviously misunderstood my point about black people accepting their inferiority. You may want to re read my post to get that in proper context.
Watermelon might be harder to find. I'll look around.
Important update -
Blacks and non-hispanic whites appear to eat roughly the same amount of watermelon per capita
Hispanics eat about half again more, and Asians eat three times as much as the first groups. With Asians as huge lovers of watermelon, we'll have to rule out lazy and stupid as side effects.
Last edited by Luke Notaras; 05-21-2015 at 07:00 PM..
I obviously can't speak for all of Black America, but I will answer. Yes, I feel a great affinity to the United States of America. I was born here (in New York City, to be exact) 55.5 years ago.
Granted, I wasn't alive for the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow. But I still feel, based on my limited experience, that the USA, as flawed as it is, is still the best nation on earth to live.
I am of obvious African descent. My ancestors were slaves. Citizenship for Africans at one time was unthinkable, but here I exist, proof that a society can change for the better. I carry a U.S. passport. I AM an American Citizen by birth.
I haven't had the opportunity to go overseas, but I hear that if I do, I will be likely not be viewed as black, but as an American, and I'm fine with that.
I can do little about how others who look like me choose to behave, nor can I do much about how others choose to view me. All I can do is take care of my own family and ensure my black children become productive members of this American society.
Excellent post proexpert. Being white, we can not help what ancestors did, even though my ancestors were not here. I can do little how others who look like me choose to behave although in my experience people who look like me do not act as accused nor can I do much how others view me. Obviously there will be agitators and some people who view through lenses that breathing seems to agitate them. All I can do is take care of my family to ensure my white children become productive members of society.
I'm wondering if instead of allowing the agitators to divide we should join forces and reject them. The only people who are benefiting from division are the elitist.
Watermelon might be harder to find. I'll look around.
Lol, and that means what?
Some of these posters can't think.
Is this poster really going to make the stand that racial stereotypes are correct?
Is that the argument this poster is trying to make?
believing in racial stereotypes is racist. SMH, but please proceed and tell how that stat in your mind justifies racist stereotypes about black people and chicken.
Is this poster really going to make the stand that racial stereotypes are correct?
Is that the argument this poster is trying to make?
believing in racial stereotypes is racist. SMH, but please proceed and tell how that stat in your mind justifies racist stereotypes about black people and chicken.
You left out my important watermelon update. Please add it to your post. Thank you.
I have important chicken and watermelon information.
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